Thompson: drug prohibition policy forces law enforcement interaction

Help Not Handcuffs founder Randy Thompson of Asbury Park appeared before the United Nations Informal Interactive Stakeholder Consultation [IISC] Wednesday to outline the harms of the nation’s drug enforcement policies.

Thompson said the consequences can be found in everything from related deaths and police brutality to violent physical and sexual assault and drug overdose deaths in jails and drug treatment centers.

“If not for drug prohibition, this population would have no contact with criminal justice institutions,” Thompson said. “This forced interaction causes both intentional and consequential harms.”

Thompson [shown at right with U.N. President of the General Assembly, H.E. Mogens Lykketoft] said treatment instead of jail makes sense because most people using drugs do not meet the clinical criteria for a substance use disorder.

Instead, Thompson and his Help Not Handcuffs organization is seeking legislation that would decriminalize drug use based on the Portugal Model or establish law enforcement diversion practices like those established under Seattle’s LEAD program.

LEAD, or rather Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, is a pilot that allows law enforcement officers to redirect low level drug and prostitution offenders into a community based treatment and support services.

“By immediately removing the use of collective violence you are removing any kind of arrest or forced treatment,” Thompson said. “We should be looking at models that have taken the responsibility for the illicit market and how to regulate it.

“It’s amazing how comfortable we have become on using collective violence of the drug using population,” Thompson said. “They are subject to many harms because we are essentially throwing them to the wolves when we allow the use of ‘collective violence’ such as arrest or forced treatment.”

This summer the Asbury Park City Council became the first municipality in the state to ceremoniously support Help Not Handcuffs legislation to legalize marijuana. While the vote of approval was a move of support, it does not keep marijuana possession arrests at bay.

Thompson said Help for Handcuffs is calling on the community to have open discussion and to let their voices be heard in time for the April United Nation General Assembly Special Sessions [UNGASS]. The three day gathering in New York will convene all 193 UN member states, diplomats, and experts to address the world drug problem.

Help Not Handcuffs data presented to the UN:

Arrest Related Deaths – 4,813 were reported between 2003-2009

Police Brutality – 26,000 complaints were made in 2002 about excessive police force

Deaths, Sexual Victimization, Assault and Exploitation in Jail –

967 deaths in U.S. jails in 2013

327 completed suicides in U.S. jails in 2013

11, 900 sexual assaults in U.S. jails by other incarcerated persons in 2011.

13,200 sexual assaults in the U.S. by correctional staff on incarcerated persons in adult jails 2011.